Sugarless 2011 Update

I just realized that there hasn't been an update for a while on Sugarless 2011. In a nutshell...

I REALLY missed my sweets.

And I mean like the sadness you may have experienced as a kid when Mom told you that you couldn't hang out with Sally anymore because she's a bad influence.

I'm sorry, Sweetie, but she's a Mac user.

I'd walk down the aisles of Wegmans and shed a silent tear for the cookies that were getting the cold shoulder, and try to shut the tantalizing scent of pie out of my nostrils. All that gung-ho "Sweets? Who needs sweets??" in January has melted away to openly pining for my long-lost loves. Speaking of which...

I cheated a few times.


The first time was in fact pretty funny. I had been having a horrible day-- this was in the midst of the post office drama, so I was annoyed over that; and I was suddenly feeling lonely in our new town, and Oscar was acting up, and I just felt tired. Nothing too horrible on its own, but for some odd reason, it was all just overwhelming me. There was only one thing that would appease my cranky, tired self. So I marched up to Adam and told him, "We are going to get ice cream. NOW."

So I suggest you find that coupon.

We went to a Dairy Queen down the road, where I ordered a nice chocolate ice cream cone dipped in extra chocolate. It was delicious, but I had just broken a successful four-month streak of no sugar. What on earth would possess me to need chocolate that much?

And the next day, my period returned from its 18-month hiatus. I used to be really skeptical of so-called PMS symptoms, but now I'm not so sure. :-P

The other cheating instances, I just realized, were on holidays-- a cupcake on Good Friday, an Orangina for Mother's Day. I'll have to be a little more vigilant about that.

I lost weight.


Last week, when we were visiting the brother- and sister-in-law, we pulled out the scale just to see how much Oscar weighs these days. My eight-month-old clocked in at 27 pounds!!! Good grief! Equally exciting is that I'm tipping the scales the other direction-- I have finally shed all the pregnancy weight and ten more pounds beyond that!! I don't know if it's the breastfeeding, cutting sweets, or the calories burned from hauling a freaking 27-pound baby everywhere, but there is officially less of me to love these days.

I took advantage of the Bread Challenge loophole.

It was always an Easter family tradition growing up to have cinnamon rolls for breakfast. So this year, I found this Clone of a Cinnabon recipe and baked the single most delicious food I have ever made. If you are looking for a good cinnamon roll recipe, look no further! It was so good, I totally forgot to be sad about not getting Eater candy, and I spent the day alternating between euphoric sugar highs and deep sugar comas. Monday was a sugar withdrawal day, but oh, was it ever worth it.

So that's what's going on with the sugar. I haven't fallen off the train yet!

A Blogger Meltdown Exercise

If you use Blogger as your writing platform, you may have noticed the two-day-long Blogger meltdown, wherein nobody could write posts, comment, or even see their dashboard. This was a problem for me. Not because I had anything particularly important to say, but I'm AMERICAN, dagnabbit, and need my freedom to express any and all thoughts whenever I want!!!

The First Amendment is THAT awesome.

After about a day of bloggy limbo, I was pretty fed up with Blogger and itching to write something, so I made a WordPress blog. This was a good opportunity to play around with WordPress and see if I liked it enough to switch platforms. I immediately ran into a problem, though-- every single name I could think of was already taken! Downright Domesticity was available, but I want a new, less chunky name that's still representative of my blog. Where all the words are real. ;-) Obviously, I was going to have to get really creative!

So for a little blogging exercise, I opened up a Word document and started typing a stream-of-consciousness list of words that represent my blog. I was really surprised by what came out.

The very top of my list was heavy with words like green, crunchy, and hippie. Mid-level was family, baby, housewife. As my stream-of-consciousness slowed down, I became increasingly more hesitant to put down things like cooking. When was the last time I blogged about food? (or better yet, when was the last time I cooked? Ha ha) Christian. Perhaps I'm shallow, but I really struggle with articulating my faith. Also glaring was what I didn't put on the list at all. Cloth diapers. I never intended to get so gung-ho about diapers, but I was so shocked by how much space they get on the blog that I didn't have the heart to put it down.

So it was a very good exercise. It helped to see what the blog has been, and what direction it should head in the future. It also helped me find an appropriate blog name! I finally settled on The Happy Hippie Housewife, which is a pretty accurate description, because- let's face it- I am a hippie.

But not THAT much of a hippie.

So we'll see where this WordPress thing takes me. I did write a post, if you want to see the best six-second video you will ever view. 

Have you ever done some sort of blogging exercise? WordPress folks-- what do you like about your platform?

An Open Letter to Dr. Sears

Dear Dr. Sears,
I would like to take issue with you about a suggestion you put in your book about babies-- appropriately, if laconically, titled The Baby Book.

Alternately titled: BUTTS!!!

I love your book and am thankful for all the times it saved my new-parent self from having full-blown panic attacks about completely normal occurrences. It's a valuable parenting resource, chock-full of wisdom!

Unfortunately, Dr. Sears, there is one piece of advice I don't consider to be very wise. In the 6-9 month chapter, you suggest in several places that a great way to stimulate baby's brain is to give them a bowl or tray of cooked spaghetti noodles and let them smoosh and poke and pinch and revel in the sensory stimulation to their heart's delight.

A food and a toy? Happy Meals will have one tough act to follow. 

Recently, I decided to give this a go. This was going to be fun! This would be new! And most of all, this would make my child a genius. I could just see him, crawling up to his baby friends. All the other babies would look at him and say, "Dude! Nice brain cells!" After which my son would adjust his monocle, harrumph, "Indubitably!" and impress the crowd with a dazzling display of pincer grasp maneuvers.

So what is my problem with this piece of advice? Well, Dr. Sears, it seems that you, and the editors, and I overlooked a little fact.

Eight-month-old babies love to put things in their mouth. And possibly eat these things.

I cooked up some noodles, placed them in a bowl before my kid, and waited for this sensory safari to begin. No sooner was the bowl on the ground, then he grabbed a giant handful and stuck it in his mouth. Okaaaaaaaay, I thought, maybe he's just mouthing it--  and then he shoveled in another handful with a giant slurp. This was no finger play! No poking and pinching and reveling in the sensory part! No, the only thing he was reveling in was the fact that his Italian genes kicked in at that moment and he couldn't shovel pasta into his little body fast enough.

We won't say which side he got that from.

I tried to get the noodles out of his mouth, but there was no way he was giving up his beloved pasta. He had already swallowed a handful of noodles, and the damage had been done. So I referenced your Baby Book to see when babies could safely start eating pasta.... 

Twelve to eighteen months?! 

So, Dr. Sears, I think you are awesome, but I'm trying to figure out how exactly it's a good idea to suggest letting grabby, chewing babies play with food- food!- that they're not even supposed to be eating for another half a year. That's like giving a ten-year-old a cigar to play with. Or a teenager a margarita. 

A sensory experience of an entirely different sort

Of course, it's ultimately my fault for blindly letting my baby play with food without bothering to check if it's actually safe for him to eat, but I'm a bit surprised that you, a seasoned health professional, would suggest an activity like this. Oh well, it turns out that Oscar didn't suffer any ill effects, and we all lived happily ever after. But I'm on to you, Dr. Sears, and your dealings with Big Noodle Companies. Now please excuse me, I have to go chase that child in the linguine bag.

Linked to Works for Me Wednesday.

My Acceptance Speech

As the saying goes, "Every dog has its day," and it turns out today is mine! Even if I'm not actually a dog. Bitterroot Mama has awarded me the Versatile Blogger award!

I've been following Bitterroot Mama's blog for a while and have enjoyed reading about delicious recipes, book reviews, and the unusual things Montanans do. ;-) So thank you, Bitterroot Mama, for the bloggy love and for your enjoyment of my goofy graphics! Sometimes it's hard to tell whether people think I'm funny or plumb crazy off my rocker. 

In a much, much less scary and bacteria-free version of Amish Friendship bread, I get to pass along this award! Here are the acceptance rules:

The Rules 
If you accept this award you must: 

~Thank the person who awarded it to you.
~Post 7 tidbits about yourself
~Award 5 other bloggers this award.

My seven tidbits:
1. I like to do woodburning when I'm feeling creative and want to see my hands in bandages for the next couple weeks.
2. My husband and I honeymooned in Banff, the heart of the Canadian Rockies and the most beautiful place on earth!
3. I'm a boss at Scattergories. Apples to Apples, not so much. :-(
4. My first words were "poo-cat" (my baby rendition of "puddy cat").

Say it right, or not at all. >:-(

5. I never had a dental cavity in my life until I went to college and started drinking juice every day. True story.
6. My college job was working at the university library.
7. I loathe dachsunds.

My Versatile Blogger Award recipients:
- That Married Couple: I love reading her amazing, thoughtful posts on natural living, parenting, and NFP!
- My Country Cupboard: Miriam is super skilled at saving money with coupons and gardening. I want to be just like her when I grow up. :-P
- Are We Still Cool? : Cool Mum and Cool Dad are always making me laugh with their tales of life in NYC.
- My Favorite Things: Ani makes the cutest crafts and has a wealth of great holiday projects!
- B is for Bissonnette: Laura and I have been close friends since our preschool days. We may be on different coasts, but I just love reading about her little family and all the creative projects she comes up with for her toddler!

You don't have to accept the award if you don't want to- I mean, what the heck is a Versatile Blogger supposed to be, anyways?- but I thought this was an excellent opportunity to highlight some of my favorite blogosphere folks. Thank you for your presence on the interwebs!

Seven Quick Takes Friday: Rants and Raves

Yes, I realize it is late Friday evening, but better late than never, right? So here are seven things I'm currently ranting or raving about:

1.  Rave. This year marks my first official Mother's Day! I'm excited!!! The paychecks from Adam's new job haven't quite kicked in, so we'll be celebrating on the cheap, but if I just get out of doing dishes for the day, I'll be happy. :-D

2. Rave. Our three-year wedding anniversary is coming up! From what I've read, the traditional three-year gift is leather. So what would be a good leather gift item? So far, I can't think past buying him an actual cow.

The joke may be cheesy, but I'm going to milk it for all it's worth

3. Rant. We have absolutely idiotic cats. For whatever reason, one of them (or maybe even both of them-- I can't pinpoint the exact criminal) has started peeing in various places on our brand-new carpet. I don't know when this occurred, because I never noticed any wet spots on the carpet, and only discovered this a few days ago when it started to smell! Okay, now that I've ensured that nobody will ever want to visit our house, I'm asking you if you know of any good way to get that smell out of the rug! I'm more interested in ideas for room-wide treatment as opposed to spot-cleaning, but I'll try anything as long as it works.

Meanwhile, it's PUNISHMENT TIME.

4. Rant. Have you heard of that flats-and-handwashing cloth diaper challenge happening at the end of May? It's a week-long event the cloth diapering community is doing in response to a news report about babies in desperately poor families getting infections from sitting in diapers too long or reusing disposables. You may be surprised to learn that I am NOT participating. In fact, I'm really not thrilled with this at all. Don't get me wrong; I am absolutely convinced that cloth diapers save a lot of money, and during my handwashing days, I was SO thankful to not have to worry about buying diapers, when we were having difficulty just affording groceries. My main problem is this: most people who don't cloth diaper choose not to because, well, they just don't want to, and they probably won't give a hoot about this event. As for the impoverished folks who DO want to use cloth diapers? They would be benefitting a lot more from this challenge if the CD community were taking that money they're spending on special five-gallon drums and plungers and rubber gloves- and flats for THEMSELVES!!!- and donating it to something like the Cloth Diaper Foundation instead. You know, so that the struggling families who actually DO want to use cloth diapers can get access to them? I don't know; call me an evil, joy-sucking curmudgeon, but to someone who has been in a situation of need before, the whole thing sounds more like a cloth diaper activist crusade than a real effort to improve people's lives. Hopefully I'm missing some key point and someone will set me straight. :-P


5. Rave. Okay, before I get labeled a heretic, here's a real good case for cloth diaper advocacy:

As you can see, we're all ready for that cow.

I've been waiting forever to unpack the props!

Just try to tell me these are not the cutest pictures you've seen today. :-)

6. Rave. Make It and Love It, one of my favorite crafting sites, just published a list of things you can do with fabric scraps! This is very good news, because, well... let's just pray that Adam never finds out how many boxes of fabric we brought in the move.

7. Rant. The price of gas. Oh. Em. Gee. Last I looked, it was $4.05 per gallon here! Chalk another one up for the cow gift idea...

Cowabunga, man!

What is the price of gas in your area?

For more (and much more lucid) Seven Quick Takes, head on over to Conversion Diary!

We have a winner!

Congratulations to the winner of the Earth Day giveaway, Heather M.! You will be receiving an email shortly!

You've Got Mail!... FINALLY

Today, in overcast Virginia, it's raining cats and dogs-- and mail! Evidently, those yahoos at the post office decided I could get some of my mail now.

Wouldn't you know it, I still didn't get that cloth diaper package. :-P